Conventionally, board-mounted electrical connectors have been attached to the surfaces of printed circuit boards on which other electronic or electrical components are mounted. Accordingly, a reduction in size that allows the efficient mounting of numerous components has been required in such electrical connectors. Such component size reduction is also required for connectors that engage with these board-mounted connectors.
The board-mounted electrical connector disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Kokai No. H1-140780 is one such connector. This connector is designed so that the end portions of a pair of locking levers disposed on the outside of a shell engaging member are caused to open to the left and right by pressing the locking levers. Disengagement from the mating connector is accomplished by operation of the locking levers.
Similar electrical connectors are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. H10-154550 and Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. H11-162566. The connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. H10-154550 is shown in FIG. 12. In this plug 200, a resilient locking member 204 which has a hook 214 used for engagement on its end, is disposed on the side surface of the housing main body 202. A projection 208 is formed on a resilient arm 206 of this locking member 204. A release button 210 having a release section 212 that has an inclined surface 209 for engaging the projection 208 protrudes toward the outside of the locking member. When the release button 210 is pressed, the release section 212 presses the projection 208 down, so that the hook 214 on the end of the locking member 204 is pressed down, thus causing the plug 200 to be released from it's mating connector.
In the conventional electrical connector disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Kokai No. H1-140780, locking levers and locking lever engaging members are disposed on the outside of both ends of the shell engaging member. Accordingly, it is difficult to reduce the width of the connector. Furthermore, in the case of Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. H10-154550 illustrated in FIG. 12, it is necessary to release the engagement by converting the operation of the release button 210 in the horizontal direction into movement of the hook 214 in the vertical direction. As a result, although the amount of movement of the locking member 204 in the left-right direction is small, the length of the inclined surface 209 is increased if an attempt it made to reduce the required operating force of the release button 210. Consequently, the amount of movement of the release button 210 must be increased, and it may therefore be difficult to reduce the dimension of the connector in the direction of width. Furthermore, since the hook 214 of the locking member 204 moves upward and downward, there may be cases in which it is difficult to reduce the dimension of the connector in the vertical direction, depending on the amount of this movement. Moreover, the engaging member 216 of the plug 200 has a rectangular shape, so that there is a danger of backward attachment to the mating connector.